‘Dumb Starbucks’ Closed By Health Department Officials

Los Angeles’ parody “Dumb Starbucks” store is no more.The joke coffee shop, which opened Friday in the city’s Los Feliz neighborhood, was shuttered Monday by the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services for operating without a health permit, the Los Angeles Times reports.The store, which handed out free coffees and lattes to “customers,” looked remarkably like a real Starbucks, with the notable exception that it had the word “dumb” in front of its product names. (It even had “dumb jazz” CDs near the register.)This notice from the health department was posted on the store’s door this week, according to ABC 7 Eyewitness News:

Dumb Starbuckswas a viral publicity stunt for the Comedy Central show “Nathan For You,” which came out last year and is about to enter its second season. The series features comedian Nathan Fielder giving bizarre advice to floundering businesses.Starbucks appears to have been uneasy about the whole prank.”We are evaluating next steps and while we appreciate the humor, they cannot use our name, which is a protected trademark,” a spokesman for the coffee company told The Huffington Post on Monday.This isn’t the first time Fielder has tricked the Internet. He previously staged a video of a pig appearing to save a baby goat from drowning that went viral online.